


A Chapter Closed

by imaginary_iby



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: 4.11 episode tag, Gen, lots and lots of Ohana feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 16:42:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_iby/pseuds/imaginary_iby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As much as Danny's heart breaks for the little girl in the locket, flying to Japan to meet her father wasn't something he thought he'd be able to pull off.  Thankfully, his Ohana is there to back him up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Chapter Closed

Danny spears a row of peas with his fork, smudging them across his plate and into the neighbouring glomp of mashed potato. The meal is delicious, hot and filling, but damn if he can find the urge to eat. 

He can feel the locket in his pocket, a heavy weight. Truth be told, he doesn’t know why he brought it with him – it’s not like he can do anything about it on Christmas Day. It’s not like he can do anything about it at all, really, except maybe mail it to Japan, or take it to the Consulate-General’s office.

And yet. And yet, he can’t stop seeing that little girl’s face, even when the locket is firmly shut, tucked away behind a fold of bills in the depths of his pocket. Such a little face, a little life, swept away in an instant. 

It’s a struggle not to draw Grace close, cuddle her until she’s rolling her eyes and wiping sloppy kisses off her cheek, all _Da-aan-no_ as she turns beet-red. He’s under strict orders not to embarrass her in front of Chin, and god, what has his life come to that his daughter is old enough to have a crush.

“If you stare at that turkey any harder, you’re going to roast it twice.”

Danny only really registers that Cath has spoken, when she pokes him in the side. “Hhhmm?” he asks, mostly to give himself more time to re-enter the land of conversation.

“You looked deep in thought,” she explains, eyes sparkling over the curve of her wineglass. “Everything okay?”

Danny nods, intending to brush his worries off, but the locket is burning a hole in his pocket. “Steve tell you about the puzzle box?”

“You mean the puzzle box that he opened for you?”

Danny huffs, not fooled by her innocent smile. “Really? You’re playing that card? I thought there was a _bond_ between us, Cath. It’s us against McGarrett, the last line of defence between that menace and the innocent civilians that call this rock home. And then you wound me, with that.”

Cath laughs, an eyebrow arched in amusement. “The more I get to know you, Danny, the more I realize that Steve was right all along.”

Danny isn’t touching that with a ten foot pole. Not tonight, at least. He and Steve will be having _words_ at some point, though, that’s for sure.

“So, really,” Cath continues. “What about the puzzle box?”

Danny glances around, because this is a sombre conversation, and it doesn’t feel right to discuss something so sad across the expanse of the dinner table. Everyone seems wrapped up in their own chattering, Steve and Grover arguing about how best to pop crackers, Max and Kamekona doing whatever it is that Max and Kamekona do. Discussing the pros and cons of tofu, most likely.

Danny shifts in his chair, making sure to keep an eyeball on Grace as she selects cuts of meat from the platters, delicately placing them in a plastic container. She’s determined to freeze leftovers for Kono.

“Well,” Danny says, “there was a locket, inside the puzzle box. It had a photo in it, just a black and white one, of a little girl.” His heart feels heavy, so he takes a fortifying swig of his beer. “Charlie did some digging, managed to trace the locket back to a little girl who lived in Japan. She was…the tsunami… you know.”

He doesn’t know why it’s so hard, to say the words. He’s been a homicide detective for years, seen more than his fair share of heartbreak. But just the thought of that poor father, all alone, family lost… “Anyway, her dad survived, the last of the family, he’s living in Ishinomaki.”

The locket suddenly feels like lead in his pocket, and he knows that he’s got to do something about it.

“You should go to Japan,” Cath announces, and Danny chokes on his sip of beer, because, yeah, he’s got to do _something_ , but he’s not about to do _that._

He can’t. Surely. 

The look on Cath’s face says she knows she’s still got to convince him. She nods enthusiastically, her wineglass abandoned so that she can use her hands for emphasis. “Yes, Danny. This obviously means a lot to you.”

“What means a lot to you?” Steve asks, because he’s got to stick his beak into everybody’s business. He drags his chair over, and suddenly the whole table is staring at Danny. 

Grace snaps the lid shut on Kono’s future-meal, winding over to his side to offer support, and _god_ Danny loves her so much, loves who she’s becoming. 

“Danno and I found a puzzle box on the beach,” she explains, and she holds her hand out until Danny gently deposits the locket into her palm. “This was inside.” With nimble fingers, she opens the clasp, tilting the frame until everybody can see clearly. Suddenly her face falls, so Danny carries on in her stead.

“Turns out it belonged to a little girl, who was killed in the Japanese tsunami a few years ago. Charlie” - Danny salutes Charlie with his beer - “managed to locate her father. He lost everything. Everyone. He’s all alone.”

Silence falls, everybody lost in thought in the face of such heartbreak. It’s Max who moves first, standing up and digging around in his back pocket until he pulls out his wallet. “You need to meet this man,” he says, depositing a stack of bills on the table. “You and Grace, you need to go to Japan, and take the locket to him.” 

Before Danny knows what’s what, hundreds of dollars are piling up on the table. “After Christmas-sales,” Duke explains, when Danny stares incredulously at the crisp notes the Sergeant has just slid into his hand. “Gotta be prepared, brah.” 

Grover, meanwhile, is rounding people up for an ATM-run. 

“We’ll be back,” Leilani says, slipping out the front door, Chin hot on her heels. Danny suspects that Chin may be in that tipsy I-go-where-you-go phase, if his hand on the small of Leilani’s back is any indication.

By the time Grover’s SUV pulls out of the drive, only a skeleton crew of dinner guests remain, Charlie and Duke beginning the migration of plates towards the kitchen, Max snapping on washing gloves with an eerily clinical air.

“You, come with me.” Steve snags Danny’s sleeve, all but dragging him up the stairs and down the hallway. 

“What, what, hey!” Danny protests, wriggling out of Steve’s grip with the eelishness of a middle-child. “What’re you doing?” He notices where they’ve come to a stop, and clues begin to click into place. “Why’re you opening the safe?”

Steve stops, stunned, before settling into a sulk of epic proportions. “How did you know there was a safe here?” He nods at a truly awful painting of an Alaskan salmon, and man, Danny thought that the boats were bad.

“Do you have any idea how many cumulative hours I’ve spent at your house, ensuring you don’t wake up and wander off into the ocean in some post-gunshot-wound haze? A man gets bored, is all I’m saying.”

Steve grinds his teeth. “If you’re referring to all of the hours in which you insisted on infringing upon my personal space, then no, I don’t want to know. And that still doesn’t excuse you being a snoop.”

Danny is not at all repentant. “Don’t you pay me to be a snoop? Isn’t that my whole job? And anyway, what, what’re we doing?”

Steve huffs, unhooking the salmon-painting and settling it on the ground. He begins to fiddle with the elaborate keypad that adorns the front door of the safe, but when Danny’s gaze doesn’t shift, he frowns pointedly.

Danny scoffs, because _please_ , Steve _must_ be joking. “Seriously? All the dodgy things we know each other, and suddenly you’re shy?” The tips of Steve’s ears flush pink, and Danny knows he has Steve right where he wants him.

With a flash of fingers, the safe is open. “Here,” Steve grunts, pulling out a stack of unfamiliar bills and documents, a handful of credit cards, and two passports.

“We’re not being covertly air-lifted into Japan with parachutes and AK-47s, Steve.” Danny still can’t believe they’re – probably, maybe, potentially – going to Japan at all.

Steve rolls his eyes, the epitome of exasperation, and plucks the passports back. “I just needed you to hold them for a second, smartass. The rest is good, though.”

Danny inspects his loot: bills – unfamiliar currency with unfamiliar faces; a precisely folded map of Japan, broken down into regions, and holy shit, Danny wouldn’t know Ishinomaki if it walked up to him and introduced itself.

“You’ll be fine,” Steve says, as though reading his mind. “The cash won’t get you far, but the cards are loaded with enough Yen to see you through.” He clicks the safe shut when Grace’s head peeps around the corner. 

“Please, Uncle Steve.” She adds just enough innocence to her snark that she’s able to get away with it. “A _salmon_?”

-

It’s happening, they’re at the airport, and Danny’s still not quite sure just when everything spiralled out of control. He suspects it was around the time that Grover et al trooped back to Steve’s place, wallets laden with funds. 

Now here he is, Grace tucked by his side. Even though it’s way too humid in the open-air airport, she’s wearing a fluffy white beanie, pulled from the depths of one of Cath’s old suitcases. Engrossed in a long list of Japanese phrases that Chin has put together for her, she looks up every now and then to inspect that her suitcase is untouched. Steve likes to say that she has a Detective’s diligent eye, but that only gives Danny heart palpitations.

The queue is just about to wind away from the public viewing area, and it’s a good thing that basically everybody they know carries a badge, because the entire lot of them don’t seem inclined to leave. 

“There’s this amazing restaurant,” Cath says, heap peeping over the top of the crowds. “I’ll text you the address!”

“Call us when you land!” Chin calls out, raising an eyebrow when security huffs.

Danny doesn’t know how Max does it, but somehow he works his way into the queue and by Grace’s side. There’s angry muttering coming from passengers behind, but Max brushes them off with his usual abruptness. He clasps Danny’s hand tight, and looks him straight in the eye.

“Thank you for doing this, Detective Williams. I have friends in the Sendai area. Too often…” he trails off, uncharacteristically unsure of his words. “Too often, stories go unfinished. You’re helping to give this man closure. And as you and I know, sometimes closure is all that is left.”

And with that, Max is gone.

The locket still feels like a weight in Danny’s pocket, but as he looks out at his friends, the very people who made this whole thing possible, it begins to feel just that little bit lighter.


End file.
